India, Germany to put Euro 7 mn for research; soft loan of 1 bn

Berlin: India and Germany will ink number of pacts on Thursday which will include putting together Euro seven million for next four years towards joint research in the field of education and a pact for a soft loan of Euro one billion for strengthening the green energy corridor.

"We are signing two pacts. One is strengthening of the German language collaboration and second is both Germany and India have committed to Euro 3.5 million each towards working on joint research and innovation programmes," Minister for Human Resources Development Pallam Raju told reporters.

Raju, who is accompanying Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on three-day bilateral visit here, said the two countries knew each other's strengths and have identified some areas for the joint research.

Under the strengthening of German language collaboration, he said currently 30,000 children in Kendriya Vidyalaya who are learning German and under the pact they will try to increase the capacity.

New and Renewable Energy Minister Farooq Abdullaha also said that he was hopeful of signing the agreement (to create green energy corridor) tomorrow.

Under the pact, the grid system in several states will be used to transmit energy produced by renewable and non-conventional means.

Apart from this, the two sides are also likely to ink a pact to cooperate in clean energy sector.

The pacts will be signed after the second round of Inter-Governmental Consultations between Singh and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The Human Resources Development Minister also said Germany has been on a "very sound technical footing" because of which there were many programmes assisted and handled by Germans in both IIT Chennai and IIT, Mandi.

According to official data, around 4500 Indian students are pursuing various courses in Germany, while around 800 German students are studying or doing their internships in India.